Transfer of Power: Does Volusia policy promote football recruiting?

From left, Trinity Christian's Marquion Lane, Mainland's Quinton Powell and Seabreeze's Charles Nelson are three of the area's top college football prospects. All three have played at least one season at a public high school they were not zoned to attend.

Published: Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 5:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, November 16, 2012 at 5:40 p.m.

The Mainland and Deltona high school campuses are separated by about a 20-mile stretch of I-4. But on the football field, they might as well be worlds apart.

Facts

Quick Fact

Countywide, 11.6 percent of the varsity football players at Volusia's 10 public high schools played out of zone this season.

Source: Volusia County School District

FHSAA ReactionThe Florida High School Athletic Association said it has no rules concerning zoning and leaves that matter to the state's individual school districts.

FHSAA Rule on Recruiting36.3 IMPROPER CONTACT: 36.3.1General Regulation. No school employee, athletic department staff member, representative of the school's athletic interests or third parties, such as an independent person, business or organization, may make contact, either in person or through any form of written or electronic communication or through any third party, with a student, or any member of the student's family, in an effort to pressure, urge or entice the student to attend a different school for the purpose of participating in interscholastic athletics.

Contacting a Potential TransferIn May 2009, the DeLand High football program was put on probation and fined $2,500 by the Florida High School Athletic Association for contact with a transfer. According to the FHSAA, running back Shontrelle Johnson — who was playing at Crescent City — called former Bulldogs coach Kevin Pettis and said he was moving to the DeLand area. The FHSAA said Pettis spoke to Johnson by phone but did not immediately instruct him to go through the school's registrar office. Johnson is now a productive junior running back at Iowa State University. DeLand principal Mitch Moyer said there was a violation but disagreed with the ruling. He said the fine levied was “normally associated with a recruiting violation” and DeLand “didn't commit a recruiting violation.”

Perhaps nobody knows that better than Mainland's Quinton Powell, the area's top-rated college football prospect.

The senior linebacker, who plans to play at the University of Florida, said he lives near Pine Ridge High and is zoned to attend Deltona High. But for the past four years, he has commuted to Mainland and played for a program that has been to the playoffs 19 consecutive years. Deltona, meanwhile, has just one victory in its last 26 games — and that was via forfeit.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Powell was allowed to attend Mainland after the Volusia County School District accepted his application to the Buccaneers' Sports Science career academy. He is one of 47 varsity football players in Volusia — several of them blue-chippers with college scholarships in their sights — who attend schools outside their zone, according to data from the school district.

While some parents and coaches say the transfers are an avenue to success for student athletes, others say the system is abused and as cutthroat as college recruiting, creating a group of haves and have-nots on the county's playing fields.

And while state rules prohibit coaches from recruiting players from other schools, some area coaches say it happens, and the rules get bent to field a winning team.

“I believe that (recruiting happens),” Deltona head coach Ky Cowan said. “I won't say the schools, but I will say coaches go out and recruit.”

REASONS FOR TRANSFERS VARY

There are two processes that allow Volusia County students to attend a school they are not zoned for.

The school district can approve their application for a career academy or they can request a variance.

Academies have existed since the 1990s and are “nationally recognized” programs that “get students ready for post-high school, said Saralee Morrissey, the director of planning for Volusia County Schools.

Each of Volusia's public high schools has at least one academy, and there are 33 total.

A variance is an application to attend a school other than the school you are assigned to for some reason besides academic purposes, said Morrissey. Morrissey said no variances are given for athletic reasons.

Morrissey said there are “many more” academy applications than variance requests.

Countywide, 11.6 percent (47 of 405 athletes) of the varsity football players at Volusia's 10 public high schools are playing out of zone.

As an eighth-grader, Powell said he began to evaluate potential high schools almost as if he were choosing a college. He considered Mainland, Lake Brantley, DeLand, Deltona and Pine Ridge.

His decision came down to that year's Pine Ridge-Mainland football game.

While a football game helped seal the deal, academics were a factor, his father, Chester Powell said. “When it comes to academics, you can't beat Mainland,” he said.

Mainland received a “B” from the state's Department of Education in 2011, Deltona also earned a “B” and Pine Ridge a “D.” The 2012 grades have not been released.

Quinton Powell, who said he carries a 3.20 GPA, said he would have been hard-pressed to do better than the Bucs.

“Academically, I feel like it was the greatest decision of my life,” he said.

Powell is not alone in using the academy system or a variance to attend an out-of-zone high school.

Two of Volusia's most successful football programs — Mainland and Seabreeze — have the counties' highest number of out-of-zone players on their varsity rosters.

Seabreeze, which missed the playoffs this season for just the second time in seven years, led the county with 23.3 percent of its team — 10 of 43 players — out of zone.

Sandcrabs head coach Marc Beach said that eight of those players were starters. Beach said he doesn't agree with the school district's zoning lines and feels they give his competitors an advantage. He said many of his out-of-zone players grew up playing Pop Warner football together in Ormond Beach but are zoned for archrival Mainland.

Charles Nelson is the Sandcrabs' highest-profile academy exemption and one of the area's most-sought-after juniors. The 5-foot-8, 164-pound running back/wide receiver/defensive back has seven college scholarship offers, including Georgia Tech and North Carolina. He was originally zoned to attend Mainland, but he said he was motivated to attend Seabreeze, in part, to stay with the friends he grew up with. His family has since moved into the Seabreeze district, Beach said.

“Charles said he wanted to join the culinary academy and that he wanted to cook,” his father, Charles Nelson Sr., said. “It wasn't about the football for him. He wasn't as comfortable with Mainland because he was friends with so many kids who were going to be going to Seabreeze.''

Mainland, which rallied past Lakeland Lake Gibson 49-42 Friday night in the first round of the playoffs, has 18 percent of its team — nine of 50 players — from out of zone.

Mainland coach Scott Wilson said four of those athletes were “key players,” including three from Deltona. All four will likely have an opportunity to play college football, he said.

Wilson did not include Mainland quarterback Cameron Hadley among the four “key” academy players. Hadley enrolled at Mainland via variance, according to Wilson. Wilson also noted Hadley, a former private school standout at Calvary Christian, lives within Mainland's district and was granted the variance after his mother's death.

Wilson, who wasn't the head coach at Mainland but was an assistant under John Maronto when Powell arrived in 2009, said he doesn't approach potential players and added if they approach him, he directs them toward the registrar's office.

“I'm not going to go looking for somebody,” Wilson said. “We are going to go with who we have here that has gone through all the proper paperwork.”

‘CALLS FROM EVERYWHERE'

Trinity Christian quarterback Marquion Lane is a game changer. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior has an exciting blend of speed and athleticism.

Lane — who played for three schools (Mainland, DeLand and Trinity) in four years — has 17 college scholarship offers, including Florida State and Miami.

But, according to his father, Marlin Lane Sr., colleges were not alone in making recruiting calls to his son this year. When the News-Journal reported in the preseason that Lane was leaving DeLand and likely transferring to Trinity, Lane Sr. said his phone began ringing.

“I was getting calls from high schools everywhere, even outside of Volusia County,” Lane Sr. said. “I had between five and 10 coaches from here call me. It was crazy. I told them I didn't want to do anything that would endanger Marquion. Some of them would just have their players talk to him.”

Contacting an athlete enrolled at a public school — Lane was still enrolled at DeLand — while he is attempting to transfer to another public school is against the Florida High School Athletic Association's rules. Lane ended up enrolling at a private school, which did not require an academy application, variance or approval from the FHSAA.

Despite the belief by some that recruiting exists, none of Volusia County's active varsity football coaches has been penalized at his current school. In May 2009, the DeLand Bulldogs — under coach Kevin Pettis, who accepted a job at a high school in the Panhandle in February 2011 — were the last Volusia football program penalized by the FHSAA for contacting a potential transfer.

‘WE ALL KNOW'

Scott Surgener, who moved to Florida from Missouri last year and took over a struggling Pine Ridge program, won six games on the field. But he was forced to forfeit five of those victories after he said he self-reported dressing an academically ineligible player.

After two seasons, his overall record at Pine Ridge is 2-18. The Panthers were 1-19 in the two seasons before his arrival.

Surgener, who had one out-of-zone player on his roster this year, doesn't approve of athletes and parents finding loopholes to enroll their children at another school.

“All that is is someone justifying doing it the wrong way,” he said.

“We absolutely all know, whether we're willing to stand up and say it — and I will — that kids use variances and academies for athletic purposes. For those that say that doesn't go on, they know that's absolutely not true.”

Surgener said the community, the school and the coaches know about the recruiting and that the schools benefiting now are the ones who have always benefited.

“I'm not suggesting that coaches are cheating,” he said. “I'm simply saying this is the system that's been created. … There's an elephant in the room, and nobody wants to talk about it because it's benefiting a large number of people.”

Unfortunately for Surgener, and Deltona's Cowan, whose team had four out-of-zone players (Cowan said none of the four played this year), things don't appear to be changing anytime soon.

When asked about 11.6 percent of the varsity football players in the county being on a variance or academy application, Saralee Morrissey, the director of planning for Volusia County schools, said that number “sounded low.”

Morrissey said there are 1,867 variances or approved academy applications countywide for the entire high school student population of 18,360 (10.2 percent). Varsity football players (47) make up 2.6 percent of that total.

She said the academy concept was “exceptional.”

“This is nationally recognized, and we are one of the premier school districts that the Ford Foundation sponsors for its academies,” Morrissey said. “It is absolutely what we should be doing for our students in terms of getting them ready for post-high school.”

She wouldn't say how many applications are made each year for academies and how many are accepted or denied. But she did say there is “qualification criteria” for each academy.

“I would say with the academy applications, they are primarily looking at the test scores, grades and what kind of courses you have taken,” she said.

Some say unless the rules change, parents like Lane Sr. will continue to look for what they feel are the best situations for their children. His sons — Marquion and University of Tennessee starting tailback Marlin Lane — played at five schools combined through their prep careers.

“It's good that there are academies because kids need to transfer sometimes for reasons they can't control,” Lane Sr. said. “Some of the kids have a goal to get to college, and it's like a dagger in their heart if they don't.

“That's why they need to do whatever they can to make it. As long as a kid is doing everything right academically, he should be able to go where he wants to go.”

<p>The Mainland and Deltona high school campuses are separated by about a 20-mile stretch of I-4. But on the football field, they might as well be worlds apart.</p><p>Perhaps nobody knows that better than Mainland's Quinton Powell, the area's top-rated college football prospect.</p><p>The senior linebacker, who plans to play at the University of Florida, said he lives near Pine Ridge High and is zoned to attend Deltona High. But for the past four years, he has commuted to Mainland and played for a program that has been to the playoffs 19 consecutive years. Deltona, meanwhile, has just one victory in its last 26 games — and that was via forfeit.</p><p>The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Powell was allowed to attend Mainland after the Volusia County School District accepted his application to the Buccaneers' Sports Science career academy. He is one of 47 varsity football players in Volusia — several of them blue-chippers with college scholarships in their sights — who attend schools outside their zone, according to data from the school district.</p><p>While some parents and coaches say the transfers are an avenue to success for student athletes, others say the system is abused and as cutthroat as college recruiting, creating a group of haves and have-nots on the county's playing fields.</p><p>And while state rules prohibit coaches from recruiting players from other schools, some area coaches say it happens, and the rules get bent to field a winning team.</p><p>“I believe that (recruiting happens),” Deltona head coach Ky Cowan said. “I won't say the schools, but I will say coaches go out and recruit.”</p><p><b>REASONS FOR TRANSFERS VARY</b></p><p>There are two processes that allow Volusia County students to attend a school they are not zoned for.</p><p>The school district can approve their application for a career academy or they can request a variance.</p><p>Academies have existed since the 1990s and are “nationally recognized” programs that “get students ready for post-high school, said Saralee Morrissey, the director of planning for Volusia County Schools.</p><p>Each of Volusia's public high schools has at least one academy, and there are 33 total.</p><p>A variance is an application to attend a school other than the school you are assigned to for some reason besides academic purposes, said Morrissey. Morrissey said no variances are given for athletic reasons.</p><p>Morrissey said there are “many more” academy applications than variance requests.</p><p>Countywide, 11.6 percent (47 of 405 athletes) of the varsity football players at Volusia's 10 public high schools are playing out of zone.</p><p>As an eighth-grader, Powell said he began to evaluate potential high schools almost as if he were choosing a college. He considered Mainland, Lake Brantley, DeLand, Deltona and Pine Ridge.</p><p>His decision came down to that year's Pine Ridge-Mainland football game.</p><p>“I said if Pine Ridge won, I'd most likely go to Pine Ridge,” Powell said. “If Mainland won, I'd go there.”</p><p>While a football game helped seal the deal, academics were a factor, his father, Chester Powell said. “When it comes to academics, you can't beat Mainland,” he said.</p><p>Mainland received a “B” from the state's Department of Education in 2011, Deltona also earned a “B” and Pine Ridge a “D.” The 2012 grades have not been released.</p><p>Quinton Powell, who said he carries a 3.20 GPA, said he would have been hard-pressed to do better than the Bucs.</p><p>“Academically, I feel like it was the greatest decision of my life,” he said.</p><p>Powell is not alone in using the academy system or a variance to attend an out-of-zone high school. </p><p>Two of Volusia's most successful football programs — Mainland and Seabreeze — have the counties' highest number of out-of-zone players on their varsity rosters.</p><p>Seabreeze, which missed the playoffs this season for just the second time in seven years, led the county with 23.3 percent of its team — 10 of 43 players — out of zone.</p><p>Sandcrabs head coach Marc Beach said that eight of those players were starters. Beach said he doesn't agree with the school district's zoning lines and feels they give his competitors an advantage. He said many of his out-of-zone players grew up playing Pop Warner football together in Ormond Beach but are zoned for archrival Mainland.</p><p>Charles Nelson is the Sandcrabs' highest-profile academy exemption and one of the area's most-sought-after juniors. The 5-foot-8, 164-pound running back/wide receiver/defensive back has seven college scholarship offers, including Georgia Tech and North Carolina. He was originally zoned to attend Mainland, but he said he was motivated to attend Seabreeze, in part, to stay with the friends he grew up with. His family has since moved into the Seabreeze district, Beach said.</p><p>“Charles said he wanted to join the culinary academy and that he wanted to cook,” his father, Charles Nelson Sr., said. “It wasn't about the football for him. He wasn't as comfortable with Mainland because he was friends with so many kids who were going to be going to Seabreeze.''</p><p>Mainland, which rallied past Lakeland Lake Gibson 49-42 Friday night in the first round of the playoffs, has 18 percent of its team — nine of 50 players — from out of zone.</p><p>Mainland coach Scott Wilson said four of those athletes were “key players,” including three from Deltona. All four will likely have an opportunity to play college football, he said.</p><p>Wilson did not include Mainland quarterback Cameron Hadley among the four “key” academy players. Hadley enrolled at Mainland via variance, according to Wilson. Wilson also noted Hadley, a former private school standout at Calvary Christian, lives within Mainland's district and was granted the variance after his mother's death.</p><p>Wilson, who wasn't the head coach at Mainland but was an assistant under John Maronto when Powell arrived in 2009, said he doesn't approach potential players and added if they approach him, he directs them toward the registrar's office.</p><p>“I'm not going to go looking for somebody,” Wilson said. “We are going to go with who we have here that has gone through all the proper paperwork.”</p><p> </p><p><b>'CALLS FROM EVERYWHERE'</b></p><p>Trinity Christian quarterback Marquion Lane is a game changer. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound senior has an exciting blend of speed and athleticism.</p><p>Lane — who played for three schools (Mainland, DeLand and Trinity) in four years — has 17 college scholarship offers, including Florida State and Miami.</p><p>But, according to his father, Marlin Lane Sr., colleges were not alone in making recruiting calls to his son this year. When the News-Journal reported in the preseason that Lane was leaving DeLand and likely transferring to Trinity, Lane Sr. said his phone began ringing.</p><p>“I was getting calls from high schools everywhere, even outside of Volusia County,” Lane Sr. said. “I had between five and 10 coaches from here call me. It was crazy. I told them I didn't want to do anything that would endanger Marquion. Some of them would just have their players talk to him.”</p><p>Contacting an athlete enrolled at a public school — Lane was still enrolled at DeLand — while he is attempting to transfer to another public school is against the Florida High School Athletic Association's rules. Lane ended up enrolling at a private school, which did not require an academy application, variance or approval from the FHSAA.</p><p>Despite the belief by some that recruiting exists, none of Volusia County's active varsity football coaches has been penalized at his current school. In May 2009, the DeLand Bulldogs — under coach Kevin Pettis, who accepted a job at a high school in the Panhandle in February 2011 — were the last Volusia football program penalized by the FHSAA for contacting a potential transfer.</p><p><b>'WE ALL KNOW'</b></p><p>Scott Surgener, who moved to Florida from Missouri last year and took over a struggling Pine Ridge program, won six games on the field. But he was forced to forfeit five of those victories after he said he self-reported dressing an academically ineligible player.</p><p>After two seasons, his overall record at Pine Ridge is 2-18. The Panthers were 1-19 in the two seasons before his arrival.</p><p>Surgener, who had one out-of-zone player on his roster this year, doesn't approve of athletes and parents finding loopholes to enroll their children at another school.</p><p>“All that is is someone justifying doing it the wrong way,” he said. </p><p>“We absolutely all know, whether we're willing to stand up and say it — and I will — that kids use variances and academies for athletic purposes. For those that say that doesn't go on, they know that's absolutely not true.” </p><p>Surgener said the community, the school and the coaches know about the recruiting and that the schools benefiting now are the ones who have always benefited.</p><p>“I'm not suggesting that coaches are cheating,” he said. “I'm simply saying this is the system that's been created. … There's an elephant in the room, and nobody wants to talk about it because it's benefiting a large number of people.”</p><p>Unfortunately for Surgener, and Deltona's Cowan, whose team had four out-of-zone players (Cowan said none of the four played this year), things don't appear to be changing anytime soon.</p><p>When asked about 11.6 percent of the varsity football players in the county being on a variance or academy application, Saralee Morrissey, the director of planning for Volusia County schools, said that number “sounded low.”</p><p>Morrissey said there are 1,867 variances or approved academy applications countywide for the entire high school student population of 18,360 (10.2 percent). Varsity football players (47) make up 2.6 percent of that total.</p><p>She said the academy concept was “exceptional.”</p><p>“This is nationally recognized, and we are one of the premier school districts that the Ford Foundation sponsors for its academies,” Morrissey said. “It is absolutely what we should be doing for our students in terms of getting them ready for post-high school.”</p><p>She wouldn't say how many applications are made each year for academies and how many are accepted or denied. But she did say there is “qualification criteria” for each academy.</p><p>“I would say with the academy applications, they are primarily looking at the test scores, grades and what kind of courses you have taken,” she said.</p><p>Some say unless the rules change, parents like Lane Sr. will continue to look for what they feel are the best situations for their children. His sons — Marquion and University of Tennessee starting tailback Marlin Lane — played at five schools combined through their prep careers.</p><p>“It's good that there are academies because kids need to transfer sometimes for reasons they can't control,” Lane Sr. said. “Some of the kids have a goal to get to college, and it's like a dagger in their heart if they don't. </p><p>“That's why they need to do whatever they can to make it. As long as a kid is doing everything right academically, he should be able to go where he wants to go.”</p><p><b><I>Staff writers Buddy Shacklette, Brent Woronoff and Sean Kernan contributed to this report.</i></b></p>